When a patient in a medical setting is partially sedated, he or she may find it difficult to maintain balance or body position. This is particularly problematic when the patient is lying atop a narrow, possibly mobile, surface. For example, a semi-medicated patient resting on a narrow exam table during a catheterization or imaging procedure, or being moved between rooms on a gurney, may have an increased propensity to change position unexpectedly or even fall because of impaired reflexes caused by his or her sedated condition. Additionally, a patient under the influence of a sedative could easily forget that he or she is supposed to be lying still for a medical test or procedure and attempt to rise or shift position in a way which might jeopardize the accuracy or integrity of the medical procedure.
The National Quality Forum (“NQF”), a nonprofit group in Washington, DC dedicated to setting health care quality standards, considers falls to be one of 28 serious reportable adverse patient care events included in a list used by many states to set patient care standards. In 2008, following a 2006 NQF study including this classification for falls, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicated that Medicare/Medicaid would no longer pay for treatment of injuries incurred by a patient through a fall in a healthcare facility. Because of the nonreimburseable costs involved with caring for these fall-injured patients, health care providers have an additional incentive to avoid loss of balance events during medical treatment.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus which can help to stabilize at least a portion of the patient's body and provide the patient with a sense of physical security when the patient's reflexes are impaired.